Blooming nature and geese and swans...

I awoke very early yesterday at 6 am walked through my local woods enjoying the morning and had a go of my new longbow and after a few hours I walked
down the local canal and saw about 50 mallards 30 or so geese and a huge swan.
They looked hungry so I went and bought 3 loaves of bread for them (not cheap stuff 1.50 quid each posh bread) and walked back and started feeding
them.
It was fine for a few minutes until they started fighting and then around 15 geese jumped up on the canal bank and started hissing flapping wings and
coming for me! I backed off attempting to throw bread away from me but they kept coming. I backed up and thought "oh crap they are boxing me in" I
looked behind me and the Swan was right behind me hissing flapping it wings...that was it I chucked the rest of the bread away from me and fled...only
to slip on some geese poo and doing my back in...so I'm gonna miss work and lose money because of those darn birds.
Mugged by a chuffing swan ....
So screw nature I aint being nice and feeding them ever again.....gonna shoot em next time.

Swans are very protective of their territories. The little guy probably didn't know that it was food (birds can't smell) you were throwing, for all he
knows, there's a guy coming in and he's throwing stuff.

Wow lol (except for your back - not funny!) Sounds creepy and surreal at the same time.

A friend and I once went to a farm field not far from home to take night sky pictures. Been there dozens of times, usually notice cows in the field,
sleeping or standing. This time though, after setting up the cameras, we hear a few moos, getting closer, and look into the field to see about 30
cows, still 50 yards away, slowly, steadily moving in a snipping V-formation towards us. Cows. What the hell?...

We took it in for about 10 seconds, the formation kept coming, slowly, mooooing. Gathered up the cameras, ran to the car laughing, terrified and
bewildered. Maybe normal defensive nighttime behavior, I don't know, but I'd never seen it before and it was as frightening as it was awesome.

Don't make presumptions about why nature does what it does when you don't even know enough about it to not feed birds bread.

Don't carry a bow around in the bush until you know more about nature. Real hunters know enough about the intricacies of nature to be ethical and
respectful when interacting with it. You know nothing about nature yet. If you did you would see how amazing it is and be in love with it...and you
would not feed birds bread.

The ducks would hop about in front of me waiting for their share and if a Canada Goose felt left out they'd give me a little peck to remind me they
were there.

The swans got used to me and would swim over whenever I appeared with a bag.

I noticed they were all quite territorial so I'd walk slowly along the river taking care to feed everyone.

Don't give up, it's getting cold now and a bit of extra food would be welcome. Just take it easy and make sure each bird gets a bit. Don't panic if
you get nipped, they're only worried in case they miss out.

Maybe get cheaper bread next time so you can buy more to distribute, and break it up before you go near the birds.

It would be a shame to deprive yourself of the pleasure of feeding the birds because of one bad experience.

PS - I thought of a new name for you in keeping with your knightly personsa: Don Quackote (don't all laugh at once)

Awwww www...now, now. Get your panties out of a wad. Just consider it as a lesson learned. I had the same thing happen to me once on the banks of the
famed "Blue Danube" in Germany. My date and I walked down to see the swans and one biiiiig ole guy clambered out of the river (which is actually brown
BTW), flapping wings as big as a B52, stretched out his10 foot long neck with a beak like a bear trap, hissing like a giant feathered snake and hauled
tail after us! I don't doubt there were a few people watching as this unfolded, and getting a good laugh at the crazy couple running for their lives!
I was in formal evening wear, but didn't REALLY care as I hiked my dress up as far as I dared, while using my spikey high heels to dig into the ground
for better traction and running at full tilt up the bank! My date never knew how close to death he would have been if he had even looked like he
wanted to laugh at our predicament!! From then on I just admired the beautiful creatures from afar and warned any other would be, up close and
personal novice swan lovers of their potential fate if they thought it would be fun to feed the cute swans...especially if they had kids in tow. Heck,
if we invade their territory even just to feed them a few snacks, I'm sure they view us as a viable threat...especially in that they used to be
considered food source for humans!

Awwww www...now, now. Get your panties out of a wad. Just consider it as a lesson learned. I had the same thing happen to me once on the banks of the
famed "Blue Danube" in Germany. My date and I walked down to see the swans and one biiiiig ole guy clambered out of the river (which is actually brown
BTW), flapping wings as big as a B52, stretched out his10 foot long neck with a beak like a bear trap, hissing like a giant feathered snake and hauled
tail after us! I don't doubt there were a few people watching as this unfolded, and getting a good laugh at the crazy couple running for their lives!
I was in formal evening wear, but didn't REALLY care as I hiked my dress up as far as I dared, while using my spikey high heels to dig into the ground
for better traction and running at full tilt up the bank! My date never knew how close to death he would have been if he had even looked like he
wanted to laugh at our predicament!! From then on I just admired the beautiful creatures from afar and warned any other would be, up close and
personal novice swan lovers of their potential fate if they thought it would be fun to feed the cute swans...especially if they had kids in tow. Heck,
if we invade their territory even just to feed them a few snacks, I'm sure they view us as a viable threat...especially in that they used to be
considered food source for humans!

This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression.